http://jalopnik.com/cars/bydate/2007/01/ is a terrific website I recommend, and I found out there. A friend and co-worker, Mike, grew up with Dick's son, and had spent a little time at the Landy company garage and has a couple of stories about the wonderful time he had there.

Friday, January 12, 2007

http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?DocID=1014&cat=Shelby&ExhibitID=264&index=15 Gives a brief description, and I'll get into this in more detail later, but briefly... the S.D. Auto Museum had a couple incredible Ferrari's on display awhile back, and a Scaglietti Corvette was there ( and forever on my camcorder tape, before I had a digi camera) and I learned that the racecar drivers / owners who were so far from the US source for parts in the 60's while racing in Italy, tried to get something happening as a collaborative effort that would achieve race cars that could be quickly and locally repaired.

"A crowning achievement in Shelby’s life is the development of the Shelby Series I, powered by an Oldsmobile V-8. This association with GM and Oldsmobile made Shelby the first person ever to be involved in the development of performance cars for all of the Big Three automakers." That would be Ford, for the AC Cobra / Cobra Mustang GT 350/500 , Chrysler for the GLH / GLHS / Viper ( http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/goes-like-hell-shelby-glhs-cool.html#links ) , and GM for the Shelby Series 1 powered by Oldsmobile.

I talked to the director of the San Diego Auto Museum http://www.sdautomuseum.org/ in Balboa Park, and he took the position about 18 months ago. The AMX-3 wasn't in the museum's collection then or since. Damn. Love that design. He thinks it may be at the Peterson Auto Museum http://www.petersen.org/ in Pomona.

I know this is true, girlfriends have always done things this way, smart, practical, and clean. Just like the one terrific girlfriend I've had, miss you Bev!

Men1) Wait until the weekend and buy a case of oil and oil filter, (PH-8A) http://www.fram.com/partsCatalog/index.php Nice!2) Buy a 12pk of beer for the garage minifridge.3) Open a beer and drink it.4) Spend 10 minutes looking for floor jack and jack stands. Jack car up.5) Find drain pan.6) Place drain pan under engine.7) Look for 9/16 box end wrench.8) Unscrew drain plug, dropping drain plug in pan of hot oil; splash hot oil on face and arms in process. Cuss.9) Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off face and arms. Throw cat litter on spilled oil.10) Have another beer while watching oil drain.11) Spend 5 minutes looking for cool toothed oil filter wrench. (Forgot I loaned it out)12) Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.13) Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Scatter more cat litter under car, drink a beer.14) Buddy shows up; finish beers with him. Decide to finish oil change tomorrow so you can go see his new garage door opener work.15) Sunday: Drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car. Oil slops out of the pan all over the garage floor. Empty remains into 20lb cat litter jug.16) Throw cat litter on oil, rub it in with a shorty 2x4.17) Beer. No, drank it all yesterday.18) Install new oil filter properly applying a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.19) Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.20) Remember drain plug from step 15.21) Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.22) Remember the used oil is in 20lb cat litter pouring jug with drain plug.23) Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now pooled on the floor. Throw more cat litter on oil spill.24) Crawl under car getting oily cat litter on everything clean. Slip with wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame.25) Bang head on K-member in reaction to step 31, begin cussing fit.26) Throw stupid wrench. Wrench carooms off wall, disappears out garage door.27) Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench is now lost.28) Clean up hands and forehead and bandages as required to stop blood flow.29) Dump in eight fresh quarts of oil. (loving every drop that is going to stay in that deep pan that requires annual JB weld treatment 'cause it hangs so low.)30) Lower car from jack stands.31) Accidentally crush remaining 3 quarts of new motor oil.32) Move car back to apply more cat litter to fresh oil spill.33) Document my madness here on the website for posterity.Money spent:Parts $35.00Beer $16.00New 9/16 ths wrench $6.99Total -- $58.00

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

InSan Diego's little Italy, around October, there is an annual Festival and though I've missed it many times, I'm gonna be there this year. Lambo's, Ferrari's, Maserati's, etc... filling streets. It's a unique car show for San Diego, of all the shows through the summer I haven't seen these makes of cars group up except at this festival. Streets full of great food, chalk art on the streets, and those marvelous sports cars. Reason enough for me to park a mile away and walk in. 'Cause the parking is not to be found for a long way on this occasion. http://www.littleitalysd.com/festa/ItalianMotorsport.asp Good website for an overview of last years event, I'll update closer to the show on specifics when they're set for the 2007 festival. For some great pics go here http://www.lamborghiniclub.com/sdpix06a.htm

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Located in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, on El Cahon Blvd east of the 70th St intersection is a terrific car museum called "The San Diego Collection". Owned by the guy who owns Charco Construction, he really throughs a terrific show when he brings some cars to local public car shows. I saw a few he brought to the Coronado Car Show in the summer of '04.

Gibb was in the know about the COPO ZL-1 camaro's and sold most of them, Royal Bobcat is mentioned in another entry for the GTO they brought to the Musclecar shootout of factory or dealership muscle. the link above has a complete description and is much better written than I could do.

528 inch, by VanGordon racing engines. 725 Hp. Completely restored 68 Darts, the first is distinguished by the ram in the tail stripe facing backwards.

http://www.mrnorms.com/files/dealer.html is the website of the fanclub, and has the complete story and build specs for these. For anyone curious why this guy has a fan club? He had a dealership that specialized in hi-performance Mopars. He would install superchargers on 340 demons, he'd stuff 383's and 440's into darts, heck, he was the innovator that made Dodge realize that engines bigger than a 340 could sell in a dart!His dealership was Gran Spaulding, and a special sticker would go into the window of the cars he sold, they worth about 30% more than the same car from another dealership to collectors. In the 60's there weren't many who could afford the best musclecars on the market, and there were few dealerships that catered to the few rich enough to order anything they wanted. Tasca Ford, Nickey's Chevrolet, Baldwin Motion Chevrolet, Gran Spaulding Dodge, Yenko Chevrolet.... these are off the top of my head, and not a complete list.

Most of the upgradeable parts were replaced with bigger and better, such as brakes, suspension, etc. The exhaust has electric switch cutouts, http://www.mrnorms.com/files/sema6.jpg has a few good hi res pictures.Fiberglass fenders, and hood, aluminum engine block and parts... this is as lightweight and best handling as they could design it.

Mike Lavallee in Everett Wa. invented and perfected the technique of the most realistic painted flames. I watched Mike paint a car on a Chip Foose show, "Rides" I think, or maybe "Overhaulin' " on the Discovery channel a couple of years ago, and was amazed.